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Deeplinks Blog

Deeplinks Blog

Customers to Get Clean CDs and Extra Downloads Because of Flawed Copy-Protection New York - A US District Court judge in New York gave preliminary approval Friday to a settlement for music fans who purchased Sony BMG music CDs containing flawed copy protection programs. Under the proposed settlement, Sony BMG...

Fear of Legal Action Chills Computer Security Researchers San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today sent an open letter to EMI Music -- the record label representing artists including Paul McCartney and Coldplay -- calling on it to agree not to pursue any legal action against computer security...

It was thanks to the work of independentsecurityresearchers that the security risks in Sony-BMG's copy protected CDs were discovered. But what about the copy-protected CDs being sold by EMI labels (including Virgin, Capitol, and Liberty Records), which use similar copy protection technologies from Macrovision Corporation...

Charlie Crist, the Florida Attorney General, has joined several other states in investigating the Sony DRM debacle: Allegation or issue being investigated: It has been reported that certain Sony music cd's contain a software program apparently intended to protect against unauthorized duplication of the cd by the purchaser. This software...

"The proposed settlement will provide significant benefits for consumers who bought the flawed CDs," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Under the terms, those consumers will get what they thought they were buying--music that will play on their computers without restriction or security risk. EFF is continuing discussions with Sony...

“The proposed settlement will provide significant benefits for consumers who bought the flawed CDs,” said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Under the terms, those consumers will get what they thought they were buying--music that will play on their computers without restriction or security risk. EFF is continuing discussions with Sony...

Raleigh, North Carolina - After a series of lawsuits led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to defend North Carolina's election integrity laws, controversial electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems finally withdrew from the state's voting machine procurement process on Thursday. In November, Diebold filed suit against the North...

Following a flurry of litigation that found EFF fighting both alongside and against the state Board of Elections, Diebold on Thursday withdrew from the North Carolina procurement process, ceding the state's voting machine business to rival ES&S.
In November, Diebold filed suit against the North Carolina Board of Elections...

The suspense is over. After a weeks-long game of brinksmanship, the Senate and House have agreed to extend the sunsetting provisions of PATRIOT--which were scheduled to expire on December 31st--until February 3rd. The President plans on signing the bill. We'd prefer that these PATRIOT provisions not be extended at...

Last week, the New York Times reported that President Bush personally authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to wiretap the international phone and email communications of people within the U.S., all without getting search warrants. We've gotten several inquiries from people wondering what EFF thinks about it, and whether...

On the heels of the Senate's vote for a six-month PATRIOT extension, here's the latest from the Associated Press: The House passed a one-month extension of the Patriot Act on Thursday and sent it to the Senate for final action as Congress scrambled to prevent expiration of anti-terror...

CNN is reporting breaking news that the Senate has ended its impasse over USA PATRIOT Act renewal. As we told you previously, pro-PATRIOT lawmakers have been unable to end a filibuster by senators demanding that new protections for civil liberties be added to the renewal bill. With the...

Yesterday, Magistrate Judge Gorenstein of the federal court for the Southern District of New York issued an opinion permitting the government to use cell site data to track a cell phone's physical location, without the government having to obtain a search warrant based on probable cause.
Judge Gorenstein's flawed...

The Texas Attorney General announced today that Texas is expanding its lawsuit against Sony BMG to include the SunnComm MediaMax CDs, which are also part of EFF's lawsuit against Sony BMG. The Texas AG's press release explained:
The Attorney General alleges the company's "MediaMax" technology for copy...

My most recent column at Law.com, "Sony-BMG's Copy-Protection Quagmire", describes the various legal theories that have been brought against Sony-BMG over the CD copy-protection debacle. The quick summary: more than a dozen class action suits filed around the country, based on a mix of state anti-spyware statutes, the federal...